A ‘Bus information roadshow’ is to be held following controversial changes to services in Thornbury.

The event comes after Thornbury Town Council held meetings with South Gloucestershire Council transport department and the bus operators to look at issues raised by residents.

At a Town Council meeting on Tuesday, July 31 councillors acknowledged the introduction of the new T1 and T2 services in May had been ‘poor’.

Members of the public at the meeting claimed residents were not clear where buses stopped and the council agreed communication needed to be ‘radically improved’.

Residents previously complained about changes to timetables for buses going to SGS College in Filton.

The roadshow will be held in the St Mary Centre from 10am-4pm on Thursday, August 30.

At the roadshow, there will be information about all bus routes available and representatives from First Bus, Stagecoach and South Gloucestershire Council will be available to discuss routes and share feedback.

Representatives will also be there to answer questions about the changes starting the following weekend on September 2. This includes Stagecoach revisions to Service 77 - a simpler route around Thornbury and new links to UWE, as well as the existing direct links to Bristol Parkway and Southmead Hospital.

There will also be changes made to the new routes as a result of customer feedback including additional stops on Morton Way and improved maps and communication about routes available.

Councillor Shirley Holloway, Chair of Thornbury Town Council said: “The Town Council is pleased to welcome an increased sharing of information about bus services available for our residents.”

AVON Fire & Rescue Service (AF&RS) called out to nearly double the amount of outdoor fires.

The period of prolonged dry, hot weather conditions has led to an increase in the number of times the service has been forced to react to a call.

Throughout July, AF&RS were called to 417 outdoor fires, including grass, trees, bushes and rubbish, compared to just 179 during the same period in 2017.

Those statistics indicate more than a 132 per cent increase in fires outside in the area.

Despite recent rain, the local countryside is extremely dry and there is still a risk of fire.

Due to this, AF&RS is asking for people to still be cautious and take care in the countryside and open grass areas.

Rob Davis, Assistant Chief Fire Officer for the service, said: “We want everyone to enjoy the nice weather and feel they can have BBQs but there are certain precautions we would like people to take to minimise the risk of fire.

“With the weather set to reach the high 20s again over the weekend, and remain hot and dry for several weeks, we need people to help us in minimising the number of outdoor fires.

“Basic precautions can make a big difference, such as taking your rubbish with you as glass bottles and cigarette ends can easily start fires.

“We’d also like to encourage people not to have garden bonfires until the hot, dry weather has passed. We attended too many incidents last month where a small garden bonfire spread to the whole garden and caused severe damage."

Public toilets in Stroud have been forced to close lately. Below is a letter from a reader who has some advice for loo designers.

We have experienced the problem of either closed or non existent public conveniences in many areas.

Sometimes this is a problem of “vandalism”.

So it says on the door.

To this I would reply, is the design of the modern public toilet that still exists, really appropriate?

We have encountered some very weird loo designs and funny plumbing to say the least.

Some loos are like an enclosed space capsule with no windows.

For heaven’s sake if you were stuck in there, no one would ever know.

Some people won’t use these because they are obviously designed to be claustrophobic.

You then get weird behaviour of people going in together, or holding open the door for each other.

In some loos you find you are surrounded by notices which you are supposed to have time to read.

In others there is an emergency cord, but of course one would never really know whether it works or not.

Sometimes there is a phone number to ring if you get “stuck in there” !

Then horrendously there are those that open automatically after so many minutes!

Don’t be silly.

Of course, people will avoid these or misuse them, or go and find one they like at a local museum or local cafe that they weren’t otherwise planning to visit.

Some loos like to be” automatic” and you just wave your hand or stand up and off they go. Whoosh!

Then there are the really nutty ones that are meant to be “eco friendly” and “save water”.

Again, don’t be fooled by this.

A certain amount of water is necessary for hygiene.

You really don’t need those two button operations which give you a ridiculous choice.

I met a plumber a year or so ago who happened to get into conversation with us about this.

Apparently these water economy ones can create all sorts of plumbing problems and blockages that his company has to be paid to sort out very expensively.

I think that proper loos are one of the things that the previous generation got right and this generation has got wrong.

No we don’t need all the fancy devices above in claustrophobic surroundings.

We need the proper old fashioned loos in regular public places whereby if you had a problem and collapsed or something along those lines, then at least someone else could see that you were there eventually!

A serious point really.

Many thousands of abdominal operations are carried out by the NHS every year, millions suffer from either IBS and/or incontinence related problems, and many others are on medication that means their own personal plumbing is not particularly good.

So what we need is not fancy “trying too hard” loos, but proper loos in public places that actually work properly without gadgets and strange things to have to come to terms with such as lots of notices to read at the wrong moment!

(I hope the loo designers are reading this as well as the people who commission public loos).